The Broken Avatar
by ninazenik
Summary: Eight-year-old Rya is the daughter of the king and queen of the Earth Kingdom... and also the Avatar. After learning of her parent's plan, she flees to the Fire Nation where a family takes her under their wing. Years later, Earth Kingdom armies begin massacring innocent firebending families. Rya must stop it, but can she, with her parents on the other side of the war?


Chapter One: _Beginning_

 **Kaito, Eastern Fire Nation**

The food there tasted like mud with flour, but a starving eight-year-old Earth Kingdom refugee wouldn't mind the taste. She took a ladle and glopped as much of the colorless mash she could fit in the tiny bowl. It was fine, though. She didn't mind. She had been lucky enough to find someone to buy food from, not many people served anything –even disgusting things- for less than ten coins, and she only had five.

The Fire Nation was not as welcoming as it could've been, but the harbor docks were full of peddlers announcing prices on cauliflower that were far too high for her to afford. Since the ragged little boat she'd stowed away on had docked into the Fire Nation city of Kaito, she'd been wandering the harbor to find any food she could buy, or steal. But firebenders seemed to be much more wary for thieves than the Earth Kingdom markets.

 _The Earth Kingdom_. No matter how insane the king and queen were, it was still home to Rya Komori, or better known by Princess Rya, next queen of the Earth Kingdom. She was the student of earthbending master, Master Dei-Lo, and the Avatar, which only two people in the world know: her and her master.

After mastering earthbending, her parents came up with a diabolical plan to become the most powerful benders in history. They wanted to kill all the other benders, every single one. They wanted to abolish bending and not passively. And for that, they needed to kill the Avatar. Not just to have them reincarnate, but end the cycle completely. And to do that, they needed to exterminate all the firebenders before killing the current earthbending Avatar, so that it cannot be reborn into the nation it is supposed to be in. Overhearing her parents' council meeting on this matter, she told Master Dei-Lo, who encouraged her to go. He told her to go to the Fire Nation to master firebending, as it is next in the cycle of learning, but flee to the Water Tribes as soon as word of the Earth Kingdom soldiers came to her.

So she stowed away on a ship transporting telltale goods, and snatching what little food was kept in the compartment she didn't dare leave. Clutching a few coins she'd taken from the captain's quarters, she'd made the journey in a dark, damp room in the bottom of a ship.

So she sat next to the main road, eating flavorless mud, but at least noticing the feeling of a full belly. She'd shed of her royal attire from the Earth Kingdom, but changed into more peasant-like clothes, some dark green robes and tunics. She hadn't been able to bring much but the clothes on her back, and she assumed her clothes didn't stand out too much from the red and brown and occasionally black-clad Fire Nation citizen. But then the boy across the road kept looking at her strange.

He seemed about her age, with typical (baggy but tight at the cuffs) red and brown Fire Nation attire. He had black hair that fell into his red-brown eyes. A woman, wearing similar clothes, who she assumed to be his mother, held his hand as she purchased a few dragon fruit and a loaf of bread.

The woman had seen her, and had taken note of her gross sludge for a meal before approaching the stand, and what Rya had taken for distaste must have been sympathy –or worse, pity– because the woman now turned and crossed the road, bending down to hand her the bread.

"I won't take your food." Rya said, pushing the loaf away and realizing, with a sense of longing, that it was warm.

"But I bet it is much better than Yang-Shu's unidentifiable slush." She said. Her voice was kind and motherly. "I am Mei, and this is my son Zaiko," she said.

Rya contemplated giving her real name, but before she could answer a girl pokes her head from behind her mother's leg and chirps, "I'm Asuka!" She had her mother's dark eyes.

"I'm Rya."

"I can tell you are not from here. Where is your family, Rya?" Mei said warmly.

Her family- her parents, her lunatic brother brainwashed by them, but no, they're not her family. Master Dei-Lo is.

"They're… not here."

"That's alright. Is there anyone you are staying with?" Mei sat down next to the once-princess as her kids ran off.

The Avatar shook her head.

"Would you like to join us for dinner? The kids' father passed away a few years ago, and I could never shake the habit of buying food for four." Mei said kindly.

The girl looked around quickly. She nodded.

"Are you firebenders?" Rya asked softly.

"My husband Taiko was, so are the kids." She answered, standing up and giving her hand to help up the young girl. "And you? Are you a firebender?"

"There's a lot that I can't tell you… not yet. When I'm ready I will." Rya concluded with a small smile. She already knew she could trust Mei, but she wanted some more time, to be sure. Master Dei-Lo's life rested on who she told, and so did her own.

A/N: This was pretty short (878 words only! ((yikes!))) but I think it's a good start to an all-OC Avatar fic (maybe I'll throw in some ancestors- who knows?) FYI this is the Earthbending avatar BEFORE Kyoshi... so something like 400 years before Korra? Anyway, leave some reviews and suggestions, I have a pretty sturdy plot + romance (smirksmirk) so prompts would be welcome for drabble / fight scenes.

Also, keep in mind that Zaiko and Asuka are stepfamily to Rya... because soon introducing: a swoon-worthy earthbending prince (aka Rya's brother) and him and Asuka or Rya and Zaiko would not be incest at all:)

reviews ! thank you very much for supporting my story, dont be shy to tell me exactly what you think ! thanks !


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